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Paris

When I told friends that I was paying 25 euro to have dinner in the house of Parisian strangers, their reactions were a mix of raised eyebrows, titters and incredulity: “you're actually choosing to do this?”; “what if they're weirdos?”; “what if they're perverts?”, and worst of all: “what if the food is terrible?”.

A frequent user of Airbnb and Uber, I found their reactions to my “sharing community” jaunt vaguely quaint – unenlightened, even. “It will be a laugh!”, I beamed. But on the following Friday night, as Google Maps told me I'd reached my destination – a back road in the shadow of Notre Dame – I suddenly realised they could be right. Why on earth was I putting myself through this? I felt like a contestant on Come Dine With Me, without the prospect of a £1000 cash prize.

As with Airbnb, hosts and users set up a login and profile on the site. The host adds a photo and information about themselves and their meal. Potential guests may search their chosen town (drilling down to areas within that town) and meal preferences, and they can then choose their host based on their reviews.

The company was set up by intergenerational cousins, former venture capital firm director Jean-Michel Petit and business graduate Camille Rumani, both hailing from France but with experience of a more international lifestyle. They piloted the idea amongst their friends in Paris and now, two years on, the service has 90,000 members and 17,000 hosts in more than 100 countries.

VizEat founders Jean-Michel Petit and Camille Rumani near their offices in Paris. They came up with the idea for VizEat after sharing their travel experiences Credit:
VizEat

France appears to be a rich breeding ground for sharing economy travel and tourism: Paris is Airbnb’s biggest market in terms of listings, as well as the home of internationally popular car-share service BlaBlaCar. However, this burgeoning market has also come to blows with the country’s heavily regulated and professionalised service industries. In the case of VizEat, restaurateurs have complained that the service competes on their territory, without having to contend with overheads or health and safety regulation.

However, my experience confirms to me that VizEat has little in common with a typical restaurant. I know no French restaurants where, for example, the chef's dog jumps up on you as you walk in and the meal starts with a comprehensive tour of his home.

Conviviality was the overriding atmosphere of the evening, helped along by the flowing kia that made an appearance on arrival. The food was the kind of simple, hearty, delicious meal you might find served at innumerable French family tables on a Friday night: baked camembert and salad plus the obligatory excellent vinaigrette, a hearty slab of tuna quiche, and cooked pear covered in gooey chocolate to finish.

Philippe has welcomed dozens of people into his home in central Paris as a VizEat host Credit:
VizEat

Hosts Philippe and Dzianis told that they had only had positive experiences with hosting, with the exception of their very first guest – a single man who thought that the evening might end in more than dessert! Any risk factor is also somewhat mitigated by the peer-to-peer reviews and, as the founders pointed out to me, strangers have always welcomed strangers on their travels – VizEat simply facilitates this age-old process.

Most importantly, the dishes were accompanied by a slice of French hospitality unachievable in a restaurant in a capital city. Indeed, VizEat's founders suggest that it's no accident that a service of this kind should take root in France – Jean-Michel told me “in France we have the tradition of being hosted in someone's home in country guest houses, but what we are doing is urbanising the experience.”

With this in mind, I was curious to find out how my colleague Teresa was getting along in the UK, where fine cuisine and easy openness with strangers are not exactly our defining characteristics.

London

While my colleague Hannah was sauntering along the rues of Paris I was getting lost in Lambeth. City tower blocks are like buses: everywhere, until you want one.

But with a spent phone battery and only a token map picked up at the tube I had come completely unstuck. "Is this Ridley Tower?" I asked a couple on their way in to the entrance porch of a tower block somewhere off the Wandsworth Road, where I had ducked in to shelter from the rain.

Today, when you ask strangers for directions – and particularly in London – they think they're you're a nutter. Or a dealer. The Polish couple give me short shrift.

“I think you might've turned the wrong way out of the tube,” said a more helpful stranger, once I had retraced my steps to Stockwell tube; passing Stockwell Bus Station for the third time.

I arrived at 7.30pm just as the other VizEaters were finishing their aperitifs and sitting down to dinner. I threw my coat on the bed with the others and went to join what felt like a very informal dinner party – with strangers. The flat, 60 floors up, is a South London eyrie.

I went to greet our host, food-blogger Alla, busy with starters at her six-pan hob. "Keep calm and press snooze," read the sparkles on her lipstick-pink slippers. I counted her herbs and spices – there were 14.

Our Latvian chef had prepared an Eastern European menu that included one of her grandmother’s recipes, a ‘baked aubergine and tomato tower’. The alternative was khachapuri, a cheese-filled pastry (we had pre-selected from a menu emailed a couple of days earlier). I opted for grandma’s recipe – a layered stack of tomatoes, aubergine and cheese that flew through the bridge-of-strings test.

With over 91,000 Facebook followers, and 37,000 on YouTube, Alla takes the spirit of go-getting social-media entrepreneurship to new heights. The daily upkeep of her Facebook page, Instagram account AllasYummyFood (9,338 followers) and YouTube channel has to fit around her day job, of cooking for a wealthy Russian family. Her YouTube tutorials are in demand: one of her biggest successes was a potato-cake recipe that went viral and clocked up 30-million views.

"Hosting parties is a good way to earn a bit of money," she said, clearing the starter plates. As one of VizEat’s top-performing hosts she has to change the menu to keep returning visitors happy. So much for snoozing.

Mains were either ‘mushroom Julienne in a bread bowl’ or ‘chicken Kotlets’ served with creamy mash potato, and beetroot salad. Portions are generous. “You can eat the bowl as well, so enjoy!”

Wine (it’s BYO) and conversation flow. VizEat says the concept is becoming popular with business travellers and I can see why. I love that I’m eating home-cooked food in a local’s home, in a city that is far from foreign, and yet I feel like I’ve gone ‘travelling’ for the night.

The breadcrumb-coated kotlets are soft to the bite. Alla is generous with her trade secrets. “I mix the chicken with sour cream, egg, onions, garlic and spices to make it tender,” she tells me, “And a slice of bread soaked in milk.”

Travellers can use VizEat when they're abroad, or it can be used to discover different cuisines at home Credit:
Servane Roy Berton/ VizEat

Desserts are her favourite – she once made five for a YouTube video. Tonight’s Russian Kiev Cake looks like a doorstep slab of meringue rolled in flaked almonds. It is criss-crossed in a chocolate lattice and studded with raspberries. I prefer tart and punchy desserts – but I give it a try. It is wonderfully light, crunchy and moreish. She has made enough for a group twice as big as ours.

“What will you do with the rest,” asks the guest from Italy. But she is already wrapping it in foil for us. “I’ll give the rest to my neighbours.”

A restaurant in the sky, great company and a doggy bag of dessert for £20 a head? Hard to beat. But make sure you charge your phone.